By Stephen Ndegwa
With less than a fortnight left before Election Day in the U.S., former president Barack Obama has hit the campaign trail in a last-ditch effort for the Democrat Party’s candidate Joe Biden. Not that Obama has been missing in action; in recent months he has exchanged a few jibes with President Donald Trump, particularly on the latter’s incompetence and insolence.
Obama made his first official campaign speech for Biden on the night of October 21 in a drive-in rally in Pennsylvania. It was the first stop in a series of campaigns Obama plans to have before the November 3 election day. Sadly, he will not draw huge crowds as the party adheres to social distancing rules as a way of stemming the spread of COVID-19, a pandemic that has claimed the lives of more than 226,000 Americans so far.
The mercurial Obama stands out in history as the first African American president in the U.S. His meteoric rise and two terms in office were attributed to a combination of his unsurpassed oratorical skills and impeccable suavity. The Democrats hope that he can bring the same magic to bear on Biden’s campaign. Obviously, much of Obama’s 30-minute speech sought to tally discredit the incumbent, portraying him as totally incompetent for high office. He sought to galvanize support for Biden to ensure that he gets the necessary numbers for a clear lead over Trump.
Obama’s campaign is targeting African Americans, Latinos and the youth in general. The objective is to appeal to these blocs which consist of a demography that feels disenfranchised in the American system. Obama focused on Trump’s recklessness in addressing COVID-19, which has cost the country trillions of dollars from the economic shutdown, led to the loss of millions of jobs and overwhelmed the healthcare system. He also championed America’s big picture values of non-discrimination based on skin color or sexual orientation, love for family and patriotism.
Obama has vast amounts of energy that can give Trump a run for his money on the ballot. It is an area that Biden’s campaign must have looked at as the 77-year-old Biden might not be able to keep up with Trump’s pace. Not that Trump is just three years younger, but he is more driven and combative.
Still, it is not lost on the Democrats that Obama’s support for former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton failed to translate to the election of who would have been the first female president in America. Obviously, this could not have passed Trump, who dismissed Obama’s threat in a campaign rally the same night in North Carolina. “There was nobody that campaigned harder for crooked Hillary Clinton than Obama, right? He was all over the place.”
Americans may not necessarily be hoping to relive the Obama era in a Biden presidency. Realities have changed somehow irredeemably since Obama left office in 2016. Four years of Trump have muddled the waters in a way that America’s face is not what it used to be.
Today’s America has to contend with a China that has come of age and is not ready to play second fiddle in any area of international relations. Not that China is hegemonic like its perceived adversary, but the second largest global economy has naturally eased into the leadership vacuum being left by an absconding and bungling United States. The final nail on the coffin of America’s dwindling prospects under Trump was definitely the devastation by COVID-19.
Now, critics say Biden has not shown the same level of enthusiasm in continuing Obama’s eight-year legacy and has avoided a close coupling with his former boss. There is also the notion that too much Obama influence will crowd out Biden from the voters’ psyche and make him look weak; that he is not his own man.
Voters who did not, or would not vote for Obama, but have a soft center for Biden might actually think twice if they feel it would be an undeserved third term for the retired president or that Biden would need to be constantly propped up to perform. Ultimately, Americans need a total re-evaluation of the status quo if the superpower is to survive the 21st century as such. The same old way of doing things, which Obama might symbolize, might not capture the imagination, aspirations and desire of Americans for a clean break from the recent past.
Amid the entire Trump bashing, Americans want to see a clear vision and feel Biden’s mettle. The jury is still out on both candidates’ performance in the second and final presidential debate in Nashville last night. It is a race against time for the soul of the so-called undecideds. With over 40 million citizens having voted, estimated to be more than a third of eligible voters, the window for vote fishing is fast narrowing.
– The Daily Mail-CGTN News
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